House of the Dragon star Archie Barnes talks stepping up as Oscar Tully

The latest episode of House of the Dragon, "The Red Sowing," featured a turn in the long-running plot where Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) takes over the crumbling castle of Harrenhal, tries to raise an army, and makes a botch of it. The local lords in the Riverlands aren't happy about Daemon collaborating with Willem Blackwood (Jack Parry-Jones) of House Blackwood, who committed war crimes against longtime rival House Bracken and used Daemon's suggestions as cover. In the new episode, the young Oscar Tully (Archie Barnes) asserts his authority as the new Lord Paramount of the Trident by making Daemon execute Willem, showing everyone present that he means business.

“This is the first time I’ve played a role where I wasn’t just like, little scared boy,” Barnes told Polygon. Previously, the 18-year-old actor had played what he described as a series of “tiny, vulnerable, innocent” kids, like a boy whose father has been killed in The Batman. “I wasn’t really comparing Oscar to any other characters or actors that I know, because I couldn’t really think of any similar.”

Oscar is definitely a step away from tiny and innocent. He's gotten rave reviews from fans for standing up to Daemon and asserting his authority even at a young age, drawing comparisons to Lyanna Mormont from Game of Thrones. “I wanted to play that scene as subtle as I could,” Barnes said of the big Riverlords meeting at Harrenhal. “He has to be confident — he’s in front of all his rivermen. He’s taken on the role of a lord now. And I think he knows and understands that he can’t be this small little boy little more, as young as he is. He kind of has to step up and take this role, and take action.”

"We discussed and talked about how over time, Oscar Tully understands what he has to do, and how he needs to take action into his own hands, and he kind of flips the switch from going from that vulnerable little boy into that kind of powerful figure."

Oscar Tully plays a part in the war known as the Dance of the Dragons, which will play out over the next couple of seasons. Hopefully this means Archie Barnes will stick around for a while. We may even see him one more time this year when the House of the Dragon season 2 finale airs on HBO and Max this Sunday, August 4.

In the book Fire & Blood, Oscar has a brother named Kermit (and remember that his late grandfather was named Grover; yes, there's a Muppets theme running through this), but it looks like the show has cut Kermit out of the story. Also, like a lot of characters on House of the Dragon, Oscar has descendants whom we've already met on Game of Thrones:

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